Creators of audio and audio-visual productions (such as movies and television shows) often make an audio recording of the same scene multiple times or with multiple audio recording instruments. In many instances, the final audio version used in a movie or other audio-visual production is a composite of multiple separate recordings. The intent in making such a composite is to create an audio recording that appears to an audience to have been recorded at the same time. In order to maintain the appearance that the audio recording is a continuous recording, the volume level of the voices in each clip that makes up the audio recording should be the same. However, separate recordings often have separate recording volume levels, making the voices and other recorded sounds of one clip louder than the recorded sounds of another clip even when the original voices were at the same volume when each clip was recorded.
While it is possible to adjust the volume of a clip so that the maximum volume of that clip is the same as the maximum volume of another clip, this can lead to undesirable results. Such undesirable results may occur when the volume of a clip that has a loud, non-voice sound is adjusted to match the volume of a clip that only has voice sounds. Examples of non-voice sounds include explosions and other sounds produced by special effects. Such additional sounds make an adjustment of the volume based on the maximum volume of two audio clips undesirable. Adjusting the maximum volume of a target clip that includes the sound of an explosion to match the maximum volume of a sample clip that only includes people talking would make the explosion on the target clip as quiet as the voices on the sample clip. The voices on the target clip would be even softer because they would be reduced proportionately to the reduction in the sound of the explosion. Thus, there is a need for an audio editor application that can effectively adjust the volume of a target clip in accord with the volume of voices on a sample clip.